Average customer rating:
- The Master, Masterfully Done
- "Noir at it's very best".
- Welcome to the Inferno
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The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Selected Stories (Everyman's Library Classics)
James M. Cain
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 037541438X
Release Date: 2003-07-22 |
Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
These three classics from the master of the noir novel, along with five otherwise unavailable short stories, are electric with the taut narrative voice, the suspense, and the explosive violence and eroticism that were James M. Cain’s indelible hallmarks.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain’s first novel–the subject of an obscenity trial in Boston, the inspiration for Camus’s The Stranger–is the fever-pitched tale of a drifter who stumbles into a job, into an erotic obsession, and into a murder. Double Indemnity–which followed Postman so quickly, Cain’s readers hardly had a chance to catch their breath–is a tersely narrated story of blind passion, duplicity, and, of course, murder. Mildred Pierce, a work of acute psychological observation and devastating emotional violence, is the tale of a woman with a taste for shiftless men and an unreasoned devotion to her monstrous daughter. All three novels were immortalized in classic Hollywood films. Also included here are five masterful stories–“Pastorale,” “The Baby in the Icebox,” “Dead Man,” “Brush Fire,” “The Girl in the Storm”–that have been out of print for decades.
Customer Reviews:
The Master, Masterfully Done.......2007-07-13
If you haven't read James M Cain yet, you have to check him out.
This Everyman's Library edition is a great introduction. You get a lot of story in a tidy little hardback. Good paper, readable print, a volume that practically begs to be held and a nice wee ribbon for a bookmark. And the price is right, too.
Cain's prose is lean, tight and wickedly sharp. Like a back-alley razor-fight, you don't even feel the cut until after you see the blood. By then, it's too late.
Movies have been made of Cain's work. Quite a few, actually. He's stayed in print in Europe for the last fifty years. His work has cast a long shadow over many of our most popular noir authors today.
Way too good to miss.
"Noir at it's very best"........2007-02-21
I haven't been able to put this down since it arrived two days ago. I had
read some of James Cain's stories a long time ago, but in my opinion he is
the best detective writer of all. The movies don't follow his stories in
all cases, but they are still wonderful to read. A great collection!
Welcome to the Inferno.......2004-07-02
Although Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are better known today, James M. Cain (1892-1977) is at least their equal--and many consider that he bested both in his finest novels, which combined sin-blacked characters, sordid plots, terse prose, and all the power of a blast furnace. This anthology collects all three of his landmark novels as well as several short stories, all of them showing Cain at the height of his powers.
Published in 1934, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE is the truly deadly story of a drifter who squirms his way into a job at a California truck stop--and then squirms his way into the bed of a sexy waitress. Trouble is, the waitress is married to the boss... and she doesn't like it, not one little bit. Dripping with lust, deception, and irony, POSTMAN is at once sickening and fascinating, a true powerhouse of a novel that festers long after the story has ended.
DOUBLE INDEMNITY, published in 1936, is equally hot--the tale of an insurance sales man who stays on the right side of the law until he is tempted by a psychopathic femme fatale who doesn't see anything wrong with picking up a few bucks on the unexpected death of her unwanted husband. MILDRED PIERCE, published in 1941, is equally memorable in its portrait of a driven housewife with a wayward husband who discovers that she will do absolutely anything for her vicious, serpentine daughter.
All three novels have been famously filmed, but while the film versions (most created during the 1940s) stand well on their own, the novels out distance them in nothing flat. Cora, begging Frank to bite her lips until they bleed; Phyllis with lipstick splashed across her mouth like a bleeding gash; sleek Monte and his viper-like stepdaughter Veda--all portraits of reckless abandon so powerful that they blister the page.
The volume also includes five hard-to-find Cain stories that are often as memorable as the best of his novels, most notably I think "The Baby in the Ice Box" and "Brush Fire." But whether it is novels or his shorter works, you simply can't go wrong when it comes to the best of James M. Cain. Welcome to the inferno. Brace yourself for the straight-down ride.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Average customer rating:
- Mother Courage and her ungrateful daughter
- Masterpiece Combines Crime Genre with Desperate Characters
- THIS BOOK WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME
- Thoroughly engaging.
- A noir without crime?
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Mildred Pierce
James M. Cain
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audio Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 0786160470 |
Product Description
Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. Out of these elements, Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.
Customer Reviews:
Mother Courage and her ungrateful daughter.......2006-08-30
A man tends to his lawn, showers, gets dressed, tells his wife that he's going for a walk. She knows better --- he's going to see his mistress "and then unbutton that red dress she's always wearing without any brassieres under it." But it's not the mistress that annoys her most. It's the way, in 1931, he's without work and not exactly looking for any.
So far, so ordinary.
Then the author steps in: "They spoke quickly, as though they were saying things that scalded their mouths, and had to cooled with spit. "
That's James M. Cain, folks, the master of the quick, dark truth.
When Cain wrote "Mildred Pierce," his fame and fortune were assured. In the 1930s, he had published "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity." These two short, brutal novels had scandalized the bluenoses and become bestsellers. He'd found a formula that, in a repressed culture, never fails --- serving up hot, illicit sex and then punishing the lovers.
In "Mildred Pierce," he adapted the formula and, in the process, wrote what I believe is his best novel. Here the shapely, sexy woman is a wife and mother who wants to stay married. She throws her husband out as a statement of self-respect. It's a costly gesture. As a friend says, "You've joined the biggest army on earth. You're the great American institution that never gets mentioned on Fourth of July --- a grass widow with two small children to support. The dirty bastards."
Mildred's assets are few. She can bake. And she's got a bod for sin. "Her brassiere ballooned a little, with an extremely seductive burden." Although she's got great gams, she feels she's slightly bow-legged, so she takes short steps when she walks. To great effect --- "her bottom twitched in a wholly provocative way."
It's not long before two realities collide. She has no trouble finding a lover (and discovering that she enjoys sex) --- but it's impossible to get a job. For one thing, she is without qualifications. For another, she fears that her eldest daughter, the beautiful and haughty Veda, will scorn her if she wears a waitress's uniform or becomes a clerk in a store.
But a waitress she becomes. And money flows in. Veda is, as expected, horrified. She says Mildred has "degraded" the family. Mildred's response: She spanks Veda silly. To no point. Veda crawls to a couch, laughs and whispers: "A waitress."
It is then that Mildred realizes that she fears her daughter's judgment, "her snobbery, her contempt, her unbreakable spirit." She resolves to open a restaurant, to be a waitress no more. And she thanks her daughter for prodding her to aim higher: "We'll have something. And it'll all be on account of you. Every good thing that happens is on account of you, if Mother only had the good sense to know it."
On the eve of the opening of Mildred's restaurant, she spends the weekend with a society swell and becomes his lover. Back home, her younger daughter has spiked a fever and is in the hospital. The death scene is terrible. Even worse is Mildred's reaction: Thank God it wasn't Veda.
Death and birth collide: As she buries her child, Mildred opens her restaurant. It's a great success. But we have half a book to go, and this half is a slow-mo train wreck --- the story of Veda's evil ways, her schemes to escape her mother and Mildred's shameless effort to win her love.
You think your kids have foul, disrespectful mouths? Listen to Veda: "With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls."
Through it all, Mildred is Mother Courage. Her will and her work ethic dazzle. But can Veda be redeemed?
In the movie --- directed by Michael ("Casablanca") Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, her shoulders so padded she could be a linebacker --- the story is changed for greater dramatic effect. In the book, there's no need; this time, the female is punished and punished and punished, though she's done nothing to deserve it.
"Mildred Pierce" is twice as long as "Postman" and "Double Indemnity" --- and, say I, twice as satisfying. Face it, you're not likely to take a married lover and then kill his/her spouse. But most parents have, at one time or another, a child whose ingratitude is sharper than a serpent's tooth. Well, here's the worst case --- read it and weep for Mildred, then count your blessings.
Masterpiece Combines Crime Genre with Desperate Characters.......2006-07-16
I was inspired to read Mildred Pierce after hearing Wesltey Strick, screenwriter and novelists, discuss his new novel on Elvis Mitchell's NPR radio show "The Treatment." Strick said to get in the mood for his own writing, he reread Mildred Pierce and I was intrigued. I had read some other Cain novels and knew he was a master of terse crime fiction but I wasn't prepared for the psychological insight and complexity evident here. His descriptions of American gaucherie and philistinism are unparalleled. His complexity between the mother and daughter is unforced.
The plot, about a Billy Goat husband who leaves his pretty wife for a trashy woman in Southern California circa the Depression, begins simply enough, but spins into penetrating psychological pathology.
His ability to capture America's sense of the American Dream and bad taste reminds me of Paula Fox's novella Desperate Characters and a masterful essay by William E. Blundell's "My Florida," published in the 2005 edition of The Best American Travel Writing.
THIS BOOK WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME.......2006-04-18
The book and the movie are both great. The content of this book was a little unusual for the 1940s. I was surprised that the book has a totally different ending than the movie. I have seen the movie several times, and decided to read the book. I am so glad I did, and my husband really enjoyed this book too. Mildred is a great character. She was a woman before her time. Stepping out to have her own business. Not too many women in those times would have had the courage to do such a thing. Her daughter, Veda, is a BRAT. Mildred is a "disney land" parent. She thinks the more she gives the more her daughter will love her. This is a good example for divorced parents today. They feel compelled to give their kids too many "material" things and they really just need to spend more time with their children and learn to say "No". If you haven't read or seen the movie, I would suggest you do both.
Thoroughly engaging........2005-08-09
There are only two words to describe this book: wow and bravo. Each of its 17 chapters is a compelling mini masterpiece of storytelling.
The title character is a young financially challenged mother who is forced to fend for herself in the decidedly unfriendly milieu of Depression era Los Angeles. After considerable struggle and plenty of hard work, Mildred eventually becomes a successful business woman.
But while Mildred is achieving economic independence, her daughter Veda, a precocious 11 year old at the novel's onset, matures into a hateful, greedy young adult who makes her mother's life a living hell.
Author James Cain has offered up a virtuoso performance in the writing of this wonderful novel. Chapter 1 is pure genius. It starts off with images of perfect domesticity; a husband doing yardwork and a wife decorating a cake. Then it suddenly spirals downward into the abyss of irretrievable family break-up. Each subsequent chapter is masterfully built on the one before to paint a vivid picture of Mildred's world as she wends her way through the obstacle course that is her life.
Mildred Pierce is a gripping, page turner of a novel. An enthusiastic 5 stars.
A noir without crime?.......2004-10-07
James M. Cain is one of the fathers of the noir novel (along with Hammet and Chandler) with novels as "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity" that were soon turned into films and became cornerstones of the noir cinema, as it did the cinematographic version of Mildred Pierce.
Mildred Pierce is not, however, a noir novel strictu senso. There is no detective, and if there is any crime it is not particularly remarkable, the characters don't take a walk in the wild side or through the asphalt jungle. The plot tells the story of Mildred, a still young woman trying to make ends meet after divorcing his former middle class husband, now unemployed due to the Depression. In her quest for a future (from proud wife to diner waitress to fast-food entrepreneur) she has to deal with her pride, her pretentious and viperous daughter, her decadent playboy lover and the close social categories of the 30's.
For some it could be an elaborated melodrama, but Mildred Pierce reads like a noir. The wisecrack-saturated dialogues are those of a hardboiled crime novels, as are the social schemas. Finally, Cain discovers settings that latter became classics of the Californian and American noir imaginary: the diners, the first fast food chains, and the posh restaurants by the sea.
Mildred Pierce is a great book and a portrait of a time. Go for it. I have it in a very nice edition by Everyman's Library featuring also "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Double Indemnity" and a few short stories and the lot is definitely worth the (quite low) price.
Average customer rating:
|
Mildred Pierce
James M. Cain
Manufacturer: Cleveland World Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CPI72Q |
Product Description
Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter.
Out of these elements, Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.
Book Description
Huevos Monty, Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart, Crunchy Coconut Macadamia Granola With Honey and...Green Eggs and Ham: no wonder Toronto's Mildred Pierce Restaurant opened to rave reviews and the chefs' cookbook turned into a local bestseller. Experience the delights of their cuisine right at home with this collection of amazingly delicious, beloved brunch recipes. Such mouthwatering treats as warm biscuits and scones, fluffy pancakes, and velvety egg dishes turn the meal into a great celebration. Begin with one of the eye-openers: drinks such as Mildred's Passion, a bubbly champagne cocktail with passion fruit liqueur. The "teasers" include a variety of unusual breads and muffins, from Bacon and Asiago Crumpets to Cinnamon Sugar Beignets. Choose from one of a dozen egg-based dishes-perhaps Veda's Choice, a dolled-up, sinfully extravagant version of eggs benedict. From Chester Salmon Salad to Double-Crossed Biscotti, every recipe is simply scrumptious. And movie lovers will have extra fun recognizing the sly references to the classic Joan Crawford movie that gives the restaurant its name.
Average customer rating:
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Mildred Pierce
Manufacturer: World Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FTNBYS |
Average customer rating:
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Ethnic and Border Music: A Regional Exploration (Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music)
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0313331928 |
Book Description
Just as American culture has been constructed by people of many ethnicities, roots music in America is multicultural in nature. Native American music resonates from Indigenous traditions of the Great Plains and the American West. Hispanic culture has spawned Border Music styles such as Conjunto and Tejano, while Cajun and Zydeco grew from cultural cross-pollination in the American South. In northern regions, Polish-American musicians popularized Polka, while Irish-American music holds a rich tradition throughout many regions in the East. This unique volume presents influential musical cultures from throughout the multicultural history of American vernacular song. Series blurb: This series presents five volumes on genres of music that have evolved in distinctly regional styles throughout the nation. With volumes authored by leading music scholars, the series traces the growth of Blues, Country, Folk, and Jazz in their many regional variations, as well as Ethnic and Border music traditions throughout America. Each volume presents an accessible analysis of the genre in its many regional forms, examining the musical elements and, when applicable, lyrical subjects as tied to specific cultures throughout the United States. The series features: BLTraditional music placed within regional perspectives BLThe study of music shown to illustrate cultural nuances BLMusical elements explained in accessible language for the lay reader BLGlossaries of important biographical and topical entries related to the genres.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting games from Begian GM of 1920s & 30s.......2001-10-21
Edgard Colle was perhaps the best chess player from Belgium before his death in 1932. He perfected and advocated a form of the Queen's Pawn Game that became known as the Colle System. This opening is known for its relative ease-of-understanding by beginning players and its solid attacking chances. This collection of Colle's games was written and annotated by Fred Reinfeld BEFORE Reinfeld became known as something of a hack chess publishing institution, cranking out works like "Chess Mastery Overnight" and "How to Win in Two Moves" and many others that bore significant resemblance to works he'd already written. "Colle's Chess Masterpieces" contains detailed analysis of 51 of Colle's games against opponents like Grunfeld, Reti, Euwe, and Rubinstein. It provides some insight into the relatively grinding work of a "tournament circuit" player in the days before FIDE and guaranteed prize money. I only wish that Reinfeld could have included a bit more information on Colle himself, but unfortunately very little is (was) known about him.
Amazon.com
The relationship between industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick is an illuminating window on American capitalism as well as a fascinating study of how a strong partnership can give way to vicious acrimony. Les Standiford tells the story of the two men in Meet You in Hell, a book that draws its title from Frick's angry rejoinder to Carnegie's late-in-life attempt at reconciliation. Carnegie and Frick, in Standiford's estimation, represented all that was good and bad in American capitalism. They were self-made men, rising from blue-collar backgrounds to become titans in the burgeoning American steel industry, some of the wealthiest men in the world, and loyal partners, even if they were always somewhat short of being actual friends. But they were also pivotal figures in the infamous Homestead Steel strike, where Frick, acting on implicit orders from Carnegie, dispatched hundreds of private security guards into a testy labor situation, resulting in mayhem and death on all sides and forever casting a pall over the history of American labor relations. While Carnegie and Frick's acumen in getting rich is given due credit, Standiford also tells of the workers who were exploited or killed in that same effort. Standiford presents Carnegie and Frick without prejudice, demonstrating their fierce competitiveness, short tempers, business savvy, and troublesome character flaws. The reader also comes to realize that, although there were some negligible differences, the two men are so similar and so powerful that a falling out was inevitable. Meet You in Hell is a valuable insight into the ideas and personalities that shaped American industrialization as well as an interesting parallel to a contemporary economic reality where American jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are threatened and often lost to overseas labor. --John Moe
Book Description
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry—Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick—and the bloody steelworkers’ strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation, probably to ease his conscience. Frick’s reply: “Tell him that I’ll meet him in hell.”
It is a fitting epitaph. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, a time when Horatio Alger preached the gospel of upward mobility and expansionism went hand in hand with optimism, Meet You in Hell is a classic tale of two men who embodied the best and worst of American capitalism. Standiford conjures up the majesty and danger of steel manufacturing, the rough-and-tumble of late-nineteenth-century big business, and the fraught relationship of “the world’s richest man” and the ruthless coke magnate to whom he entrusted his companies. Enamored of Social Darwinism, the emerging school of thought that applied the notion of survival of the fittest to human society, both Carnegie and Frick would introduce revolutionary new efficiencies and meticulous cost control to their enterprises, and would quickly come to dominate the world steel market.
But their partnership had a dark side, revealed most starkly by their brutal handling of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. When Frick, acting on Carnegie’s orders to do whatever was necessary, unleashed three hundred Pinkerton detectives, the result was the deadliest clash between management and labor in U.S. history. WHILE BLOOD FLOWED, FRICK SMOKED ran one newspaper headline. The public was outraged. An anarchist tried to assassinate Frick. Even today, the names Carnegie and Frick cannot be uttered in some union-friendly communities.
Resplendent with tales of backroom chicanery, bankruptcy, philanthropy, and personal idiosyncrasy, Meet You in Hell is a fitting successor to Les Standiford’s masterly Last Train to Paradise. Artfully weaving the relationship of these titans through the larger story of a young nation’s economic rise, Standiford has created an extraordinary work of popular history.
Customer Reviews:
The more things change, the more they remain the same........2007-09-01
Bought this for my son, graduating with an economics degree; gives an interesting perspective on past economic crises, the movers and the shakers who bear some resemblance to those calling the shots today. very readable and enjoyable as per my son.
A decent account of Carnegie, Frick & Homestead.......2007-01-24
The book is fairly well-written & is easy to read. As far as it goes, it is an accurate account of the often tumultuous relationship between Carnegie & Frick, focusing of course on the Homestead Strike.
Standiford does a reasonably good job of fleshing out the personalities of the key actors in the drama. While hardly a definitive study of the period, this book would serve well as an introductory work into this particular subject.
A Terrific Balancing Act..........2006-09-13
I just returned from Pittsburgh when I found this book at a local bookstore. Interested in learning more about the Homestead lockout/strike of 1892, I purchased this book and was never disappointed. Very readable... and entertaining. The author has a gift for bringing to life people and events that surely could have been dull and boring. I thank every steel worker who ever worked at Homestead, for every ride at Kennywood Amusement Park and for every steel framed skyscraper/construction that exist in my own New York City home! I thank the author for revealing the 'war that goes on within us' that was exhibited in the personalities of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Thank you.
Great read!.......2006-07-09
Meet You in Hell is well-researched and well-written. I enjoyed it very much and have been recommending it to my patrons who like non-fiction.
A poorly titled book, poorly researched and poorly written.......2006-05-31
Les Standiford's Meet You in Hell is ostensibly a history of the "Parnership that Transformed America" between Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie. The problem with this book begins there. Its center is the Homestead Strike and labor unrest in an industrial giant and the beginning of organized labor in the face of very powerful and often ruthless business organizations. The author states upfront his goal was to "focus upoon the thread of a relationship (between Carnegie and Frick)and have restricted my attention for the most part to matters pertaining thereto". I was expecting a true look into the partnership between the two such as No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (where she brilliantly wrote of Franklin and Elenor Roosevelt's relationship and the effects it had on public policy as well as their own lives). I was sadly disappointed.
This book is a short, if disjointed read. Just over 300 pages and it isn't until the last 50 that Standiford turns his attention to the relationship between these two very powerful and driven men. The bibliography should be read before one even reads page one. It is one and a half pages, most undergraduate college papers have done greater "research". The author at times seems to derail himself in the rare instances where he might capture the reader's attention. In discussing in detail the Homestead Strike he states, at the beginning of a chapter, "Had this been a modern-day standoff, with Frick in close touch . . . by cell phone and Carnegie observing the scene via CNN satellite feed . . . ". This incredibly obvious note was nonscensical. All history would be different if communications were instant rather than weeks and even months just a relatively short time ago. Either Standiford is not qualified to write history (certainly a possibility if you see his creditials) or he thinks his readers daft.
This book is only slightly interesting if you would like to learn more about the Homestead Strike and, even there, it adds no real insight. I finished it only as I was determined to learn more about Carnegie and Frick and, importantly, their parnership. I did not. I would caution that any serious readers of history not make the same mistake I did thinking that something could be learned by reading this pithy writing. It cannot.
Most succinctly put, books about history should be written by qualified historians. This one was not.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Library Bookwatch, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2005. The length of the article is 428 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Random House Audio.(Dreams From My Father)(Meet You In Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, And The Bitter Partnership That Transformed America)(Unraveled: The True Story Of A Woman Who Dared To Become A Different Kind Of Mother)(Fishing On The Edge)(Miracle)(Appaloosa)(Book Review)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication:
Library Bookwatch (Newsletter)
Date: September 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: NA
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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